Summer’s Last Hurrah

Welcome back, or maybe you didn’t do any traveling for summer’s last hurrah, either way – I hope you had a relaxing and fun-filled Labor Day weekend! Whether it’s with a sigh of relief or a twinge of regret, we wave good bye to summer and return to our school/work routines while anticipating the balmy days of fall. It’s September and time to say hello to this month’s Top Mom – many of you already know Roxana from her delicious baking blog A Little Bit of Everything, and if you haven’t had the pleasure, I’m pleased to be the one to introduce you to her.

When you see what Roxana whips up in her kitchen you can’t believe that she only began cooking two years ago! I could tell that this is a woman who excels at anything she puts her mind to. After learning she had high cholesterol, Roxana quickly adopted a vegan diet and began sharing amazing recipes for quick breads and desserts that she had adapted to be dairy free and, many of them are gluten free also.

Since baking isn’t second nature to me, I admire people that make it look so easy! 1-2-3 and your whole house is filled with tantalizing aromas and, violà, you have before you a warm slice of fresh-baked bread, a plump roll, or moist fruit-filled muffin – that’s Roxana! She shares simple recipes that are full of healthy ingredients, delicious flavors, and easy enough for the home chef, on her website as well as a number of food blog clubs, communities, and weekly roundups. I wish I had half her energy! Say good bye to summer while enjoying this savory vegan zucchini quick bread – all sorts of healthy deliciousness toasted for breakfast, a lunch box treat, or a savory afternoon snack!

Hello everyone. My name is Roxana and I’m the baker, photographer and writer behind A little bit of everything. As my blog line states, I bake a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I love baking yeast breads, sweets or not, and after finding out I have high cholesterol I left the butter and cheese at the store and came home with dairy and egg-free ingredients. I was a vegetarian, so going vegan wasn’t as hard as you may imagine. Instead of regular butter I now use soy-based vegan butter. As for the eggs, I have not yet used store-bought egg replacer but used mashed bananas, applesauce or flax seed meal. So far everything went well, with a few failures but that could happen even to the best of us.

When Priscilla asked me to be September Top Mom I jumped with joy. Oh my goodness, I was featured on one of the blogs I enjoy reading. As you know Priscilla is a sweetheart and her recipes always make me hungry.

I’m happy STHM of a beautiful 22 month-old daughter. I’m blessed I have the opportunity of staying home and watching our precious daughter grow. Today I’m going to share with you a vegan bread recipe. As probably some of you know I LOVE zucchini. It’s a yeast bread, perfect with a salad or a bowl of soup. I added some seeds to the dough, just for the crunchy bite.

Vegan Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup zucchini, shredded and drained

3 cups bread flour

¼ cup lukewarm water

1 ¼ tsp. dry yeast

1-3 tablespoons of water added to dough

1 tbsp. pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp. sunflower seeds

Instructions:

Turn the oven on to 375F.

Start by shredding 1 cup zucchini. Spread them on paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible.

In your mixing bowl measure 3 cups of bread flour. Make a well in the middle and pour ¼ cup lukewarm water. Sprinkle 1 ¼ tsp. dry yeast and let it proof.

When bubbles appear and the yeast has increased in volume add 1 cup shredded drained zucchini, 1 tbsp. pumpkin seeds and 1 tbsp. sunflower seeds. With the dough hook on slowly start mixing adding until the dough comes clean from the sides of the bowl. I’m not going to say how much water you need since it all depends on how wet are your zucchini. You may need to add somewhere between 1-2 tbsp. water to ¼ cup.

Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and place it into a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in volume. When risen, divide the dough in two balls and flatten them just a little bit. Place on baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap again and let rest for the second rise.

Just before baking, with a sharp knife cut the dough in different places to prevent cracking.

Bake for about 30 minutes until slightly golden. Remove from the oven and immediately brush with (vegan) butter. Let the butter melt softening the crust.

When cooled, slice and enjoy!

Thank you Priscilla for allowing me to share a recipe with your readers. It’s been a pleasure! I hope I didn’t disappoint.

I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not disappointed! I’d like a few slices of Roxana’s zucchini bread right now 🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

Great choice for this month’s top mom, Roxanna has a wonderful blog. Nice looking big round loaves in the pictures and bread baking is moving up the list due to the change in the weather. Love the blend of seeds with the zucchini, I would buy this from a bakery if I could find it-well done.

I adore Roxana, and I am so very happy to see her at your site..she is sweet sweet woman.
Roxy, your bread looks so good..I love the ingredients and you know I am with you about zucchinis…Great pictures by the way!
Both of you did fantastic job!!!

Hi Priscilla and Roxanna, wow, two of my favorites under one “blogging” roof – how lovely! I’m feeling this healthy zucchini bread as a wonderful alternative to the one we normally think of that’s also good but full of sugar. Hope you two are having a nice week;-)

Looks wonderful! Glad I found your blog … and was introduced to another terrific baking blog, to boot! Roxana, your bread looks moist and perfect! Love the hint about spreading butter on the newly baked loaf to soften the crust! Clever and tasty!

You could do no better than to have Roxana as a guest poster. I think she’s awesome; as proven by this amazing bread. Good to meet you, Priscilla! Thanks for sharing your space with other bloggers, especially amazing ones like Roxana.

Hi Priscilla and Roxana! Roxana, congrats on being selected for September’s Top mom! You ARE a top mom and this zucchini bread is amazing. I love the bright green color is peaking from the bread. Must be so delicious!

Thanks for featuring Roxana as Top Mom, Priscilla. I love everything that she makes and this gorgeous zucchini bread is a prime example. She’s even thoughtful enough to put in the crunchy bits of seeds in there, isn’t that great?

Roxana, congratulations on being Top Mom and what a great guest post, Priscilla! Great choice on both accounts!
I only ever put zucchini in my quick bread, but really like your version especially with the extra additions. Thanks to you both for sharing!

thanks for sharing this recipe, I think its the first yeast bread to turn out nice for me. I shaped them into long flat breads. thinking they would be great for paninis. Can’t wait to put them in the oven.